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CNN International: Cities Begin Ringing in 2022; U.K. Registers Another Daily High in COVID-19 Cases; Biden-Putin High-Stakes Phone Call; Archbishop Desmond Tutu Lying in State for Second Day; Peruvian Shamans Make 2022 Predictions; Meme-Worthy Events of 2021; Call to Earth. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired December 31, 2021 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New year kicks off with fireworks in Sydney. Though COVID fears put a damper on many countries' festivities.
Trading warnings: President Biden and President Putin spoke.
But what was actually said?
We're live in Moscow for details.
Catastrophic wildfires in Colorado forced thousands to flee. Hundreds of homes and businesses have been destroyed.
Hello, I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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GIOKOS: Welcome to the show.
And the clock has struck midnight in South Korea and they are celebrating 2022 in Seoul.
Fireworks have already lit up midnight skies in places like Australia. And there you see one of the most anticipated and brilliant fireworks displays in the world.
In New Zealand, it was more about the light show. This was a scaled- back celebration, and the official fireworks display was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Wishing everyone a happy new year. The U.K. also just a few hours away from ringing in the new year.
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GIOKOS (voice-over): Familiar sound; you can hear Big Ben preparing for his big moment there.
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GIOKOS: Another big moment though, health officials hope is one where you get vaccinated. British prime minister Boris Johnson is urging his citizens to not wait to get the vaccine.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: I want to speak directly to all those who have yet to get fully vaccinated, the people who think the disease can't hurt them. Look at the people going into hospital now. That could be you.
Look at the intensive care units and the miserable, needless suffering of those who did not get their booster. That could be you.
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GIOKOS: All right. His comments come as the U.K. records another daily high in COVID cases, 189,000 more people will ring in the new year with the virus. Salma Abdelaziz is joining us now from London.
We have been talking every single day and every single day the numbers keep ticking up. That was a stark warning from Boris Johnson and a plea, get that booster shot.
Where do we stand now.?
We have a few hours away before 2022 comes into effect.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. If you're a health official anywhere and you're looking at these staggering figures and you're wondering what's going to happen tonight, when people get together, in warm spaces, spending evenings and social gatherings, is that only going to make those numbers skyrocket further?
You're worried about the health care system and here in the U.K. how much more can it handle?
We have already seen an uptick in hospitalizations of 65 percent according to figures we saw earlier this week. The infection rate has never been seen before, unprecedented. Tens of thousands of cases every day.
In London the latest figures showing in the week leading up to December 23rd, one in 15 people in London tested positive for the virus, one in 15. That's an overwhelming figure, especially when you consider those are the reported numbers.
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ABDELAZIZ: The real figures are expected to be even higher. So prime minister Boris Johnson really using his end of year message to try to strike an upbeat tone. He thanked people for coming up for the jab and said there was an unprecedented wave of getting the third shot; seven in 10 eligible adults have received the shot in England. But the government wants to see more and more people come forward for
their booster shots. Also, it was an opportunity for the prime minister to warn everyone, to caution everyone. He urged people to think twice about their gatherings, to test before they go and attend any gatherings and make sure the spaces are ventilated.
It's a rather warm New Year's Eve. I think that is giving hope that everyone will try to remain outside. But it's truly concerning when looking at the huge figures. And London has limited rules when it comes to gatherings over New Year's Eve. It's all up to individual choice.
That really worries health officials. That's why the NHS already has plans in place for a potential wave of Omicron patients if that happens.
GIOKOS: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you very much for keeping us up to speed this entire week on the stories playing out there. You stay safe and have a happy new year.
The Omicron variant is proving to be a formidable enemy across Asia as well. In China, the entire town of Xi'an, 30 million people, is under lockdown.
All of the locally transmitted cases were in Xi'an on Thursday. That's enough to prompt officials to tighten restrictions. Authorities now requiring at least partial vaccination to enter many public venues.
The Omicron strain has forced South Korean officials to extend social distancing rules, gathering outside is limited to four people and curfews are in place for another two weeks.
India's doctors have ended the two-week strike over delay of assigning new doctors to hospitals. India just reported more than 16,000 cases in the last day.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is scheduled to deliver his annual new year's address on Friday. This comes after a nearly one-hour phone call between Mr. Putin and President Biden on Thursday.
The Russian leader warned more sanctions would be a colossal mistake, while President Biden talked about serious costs and consequences, should Moscow invade Ukraine. For more on this now, CNN Nic Robertson joins us live in Moscow.
What did this phone call achieve?
From many people's perspective, it seems that warnings have come through from both sides of the spectrum.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, both sides are saying it was positive. Both sides are saying it was worthwhile. This is coming from both the White House and the Kremlin. They realize there's areas where they can get some agreement and areas where they clearly have disagreements. President Biden told President Putin he has two paths open to him. He
can deescalate tensions along the border with Ukraine and remove some of his troops from there to aid that de-escalation.
Or if he doesn't do that, then the option, the simple option facing President Biden and his allies at NATO, is to put really extreme sanctions on Russia.
The Kremlin reads those sanctions as being economic, as being military and being financial. That's what led President Putin to tell President Biden, go ahead and do that. If you do, that's a colossal mistake. He said it's a mistake that will be felt for generations.
When it does come to the removal of Russian forces, that de-escalation along the border with Ukraine, Russia's response to that was, we will keep up our troops in exactly the same place you would keep your troops if it was Russian forces close to the border of the United States.
President Putin was indicating he's not about to move the troops away. In that context, the phone call last night has just sort of established some very clear red lines for each side, going into next round of talks.
There was from President Putin, their read of President Biden's understanding of their proposals for NATO and Ukraine, was that there was a willingness to understand the essence of them. What that precisely means isn't clear.
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GIOKOS: Nic, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. Great to see you.
Just ahead, on CNN NEWSROOM, we'll be live in Cape Town. Today South Africa is honoring the legacy of its human rights hero.
Plus fueled by strong winds, a vicious wildfire destroys hundreds of homes in Colorado. Why there's good reason to hope today that Mother Nature will put it out. Stay with us.
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GIOKOS: "Forgiveness is nothing less than the way we heal the world."
The words of the late Desmond Tutu. He's described as South Africa's moral conscience. Mourners are being allowed to pay their final respects. Only 100 people will be allowed to attend because of the pandemic.
The Arch, as he was lovingly nicknamed, died Sunday at the age of 90. He was a tireless advocate for social justice and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. CNN's David McKenzie is in Cape Town.
When we hear some of the quotes and so many people now paying respects ahead of his funeral, give me a sense of what you're hearing and what people are saying as we remember him.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was a long line of people paying their respects at St. George's Cathedral. It was quite striking to see how many had personal stories about the man, what he meant to them.
One woman got up at dawn, came into town on the last day of the year. Said when she was a young girl, he fought for her freedom on a personal level. Then her freedom was gained. xxx
I spoke to Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, the co-chair of his foundation and a very close confidant. And I asked what the great man thought about all these people coming out to see him.
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DR. MAMPHELA RAMPHELE, CO-CHAIRPERSON, ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU TRUST: He would be thrilled because he was a man of the people. He would be more thrilled that his wishes to not make this an ostentatious celebrity event, an event that ordinary people could walk in and not say goodbye to him.
MCKENZIE: He wanted a modest funeral but he was a celebrity in so many ways.
What do you think it was about the man that caught people's attention around the world?
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RAMPHELE: What caught people's attention around the world was Archbishop's courageous, prophetic ministry. At the time of the brutality of apartheid, he didn't flinch. He took on that brutal system but he also took on the abusers of the liberation struggle. He had a consistent message: human dignity is invaluable.
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MCKENZIE: That strong voice now is silent but there will be one final goodbye on first day of the year here in South Africa, where around 100 people will be in attendance. It'll consist mostly of an Anglican requiem mass. I'm sure we'll hear how he personally touched people and changed their lives for the better.
GIOKOS: David McKenzie, thank you so much.
Let's get you up to speed on some other stories on our radar.
Police in Pakistan say a remote-control bomb exploded outside a college on Thursday, killing four people, 15 others were hurt. A student group was meeting at time. No one has claimed responsibility. The Chinese president talked about the importance of being
strategically focused and mindful in the nation's goal to become a global power. Xi Jinping delivered the new year message to the nation. He also called for the unification of the motherland, referring to Taiwan and stability in Hong Kong.
In his New Year's Eve speech, German chancellor Olaf Scholz called on nations to work together to protect the E.U.'s borders. He said tensions between Russia and Ukraine pose a new challenge but that secure borders are a non-negotiable priority.
People in Colorado are hoping heavy snowfall today will put out a raging wildfire. More than 15,000 customers woke up this morning without power, as the fast-moving fire ripped through Boulder County.
Authorities say downed power lines may have sparked the blaze. Many were caught off guard and had to evacuate their homes with little notice. At least six people have been injured. Lucy Kafanov has more.
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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two windfueled wildfires sweeping through parts of Boulder County, Colorado, on Thursday.
SHERIFF JOE PELLE, BOULDER COUNTY: This fire is force of nature. Gusts of 100, 110 miles an hour can and have moved this fire down a football field in matter of seconds.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency, forcing people to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could hear cars going through like police cars, fire trucks, something like that through the neighborhood, telling everyone to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I grew up in Louisiana. I've seen hurricanes. Nothing like this.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Dry air, drought and hurricane winds from 80-100 miles an hour fed the quickly spreading wildfires, unusual for this time of year in Colorado.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been very uncharacteristic for December. Everybody has been talking about the crazy weather, the lack of snow, the lack of moisture. This is one of the results you see from this, the dry conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Videos posted to social media show horrifying scenes. In Superior, customers flee a windy Costco parking lot, heavy smoke making visibility difficult. Inside a Chuck E. Cheese, parents grab their kids and head toward the exits.
PELLE: This is the kind of fire you can't fight head on. KAFANOV (voice-over): Local officials estimate as many as 580 homes
and other structures in and around Superior destroyed, the real number likely to be much higher.
PELLE: We know there are structures both homes and businesses that have been burned and lost, hundreds of structures.
KAFANOV (voice-over): The governor offering support to those communities that have had their lives uprooted.
GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): For those who directly affected, know you don't stand alone. The people of Colorado stand with you. For those who don't know, if they have a home to return to, our prayers are with you for a safe return. For those who lost everything that they've had, know that we will be there for you to help rebuild your lives.
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GIOKOS: Lucy Kafanov, thanks so much for that report.
You're watching NEWSROOM.
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GIOKOS: Ahead, 2021 is almost done. When we come back, some of the top viral moments of the year.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not a cat.
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GIOKOS: A sea goddess reigns supreme around new year's in Brazil. Hundreds of worshippers gather on the Copacabana Beach to pay tribute to the Afro-Brazilian sea queen, Yemanja.
They offer the deity flowers, letters and alcohol, hoping she will bless them. Even in the face of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, some cities, including Rio de Janeiro, are planning to have some kind of New Year's Eve celebrations.
2022 is looking up, if predictions from Peruvian shamans are true. The annual tradition took place at a annual ceremony in Lima, predicting an economic crisis mainly in Europe. Look out for this, investors.
They predicted an escalation over Ukraine, but they say Russia is not beginning to invade. Instead, they see an easing of tensions and an agreement negotiated on good terms.
There was even more good news about world peace and COVID-19.
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CLEOFE SEDANO, PERUVIAN SHAMAN (through translator): We have performed a ritual to have peace in the whole world so that the pandemic will end so that it does not continue to affect the means. We have determined it.
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GIOKOS: The group also danced and chanted to send good vibes to leaders around the world.
That's amazing. I hope they are absorbing all the good vibes and make the right decisions.
Let's take a look at some of the funniest, weirdest moments of 2021 and who else better to help us do that than CNN Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How time flies, not to mention seagulls. We all took it on the chin again in 2021. But no one more literally than this teenager, riding the slingshot on the Jersey Shore.
Still, there was plenty to celebrate. And Tom Brady did it by daring not to go deep underwater with the Lombardy Super Bowl trophy.
Another guy also known for his hands was Bernie Sanders, whose mittens at the inauguration became one of the first big memes of 2021.
In fashion, Balenciaga combined comfort and torture with $625 high- heel Crocs
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fashion is about a double take. You want people to look and look again.
MOOS (voice-over): A Massachusetts man looked and looked again for his missing air pods after he fell asleep using them. Eventually an X-ray located it in his esophagus, and it was extracted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The audio works perfectly but, sadly, yes, the microphone is a bit glitchy.
MOOS (voice-over): At least he didn't glue his eyes shut, like this Michigan woman, who meant to reach for eye drops but used fingernail glue instead. This contact lens may have saved her vision.
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MOOS (voice-over): Maybe you think you are seeing double. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson fans were rocked by this Alabama patrol lieutenant, who even sounds like The Rock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you smell? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Rock is cooking.
And this Secret Service agent protecting the Bidens went viral just for being hot.
A dead ringer for Tom Cruise.
The pope needed no protection from Spider-man, an Italian guy who dresses up to entertain kids in hospitals.
Nicole Richie avoided the hospital, even though she managed to catch her hair on fire. Forget the candles, blow out Nicole.
A Burger King manager and eight staffers blew off steam by quitting very publicly with this sign.
While Rudy Giuliani wouldn't quit shaving in public at Delta's JFK lounge. The guy who shot the spectacle said:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was delighted and horrified.
MOOS (voice-over): The same can be said of combination foods, from Froot Loops pizza to popcorn salad to candy corn bratwurst.
Of course, animals stole the show. Noodle, the pug prognosticator predicted good or bad days by his willingness to get up.
JONATHAN GRAZIANO, PET OWNER: Oh, my gosh, there are bones, there are bones today --
MOOS (voice-over): Decreeing either bones or no bones days.
GRAZIANO: Oh, a soft collapse.
MOOS (voice-over): Doggy makeover of the year goes to this guy, found wandering in Kansas City, Missouri. They removed 6.5 pounds of matted fur. He had to re-learn to walk and his new owners say all that hair even affected his tail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It basically wags one way.
MOOS (voice-over): Then there is the tale of a deer in Virginia, that leaped onto a school bus, landing on a sleeping student. They made an unscheduled stop to drop him off.
2021 saw some unusual Guinness records: biggest mouth, 5.7 inches; the most M&Ms stacked on each other, a measly five.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to admit, I did eat them all.
MOOS (voice-over): The longest dog ears. Lou the coonhound's ears measure 13.38 inches each.
All through our interview, she kept staring off to the side --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is staring at herself. MOOS (voice-over): -- in a glass door.
MOOS: Of course, the end of the year is a great time for self- reflection.
How do others see me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, Judge?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can hear you. I think it's a filter.
MOOS (voice-over): A Texas lawyer, using his assistant's computer during a hearing, heard himself coming out of a feline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here live. That's not -- I'm not a cat.
MOOS (voice-over): At least the cat didn't get his tongue -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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GIOKOS: The cat filter for me was my favorite.
Thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Eleni Giokos, from me and my team, we wish you a very happy new year. All the best for 2022. "Call to Earth" is up next.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Planet Earth projected here under the Al Wasl Dome at EXPO 2020, Dubai. For years we have lived unsustainably but now we need to act. Tonight, we are searching for inspiration. This is our Call to Earth.
Well, hello, and welcome to the Earth Stage here at EXPO 2020 Dubai. I'm Becky Anderson and this is a CNN special, celebrating our first- ever Call to Earth Day.
CNN is committed to reporting on the environmental issues facing our planet and, importantly, the solutions that could save us from catastrophe. We, as individuals, can all play a role in making things better.
Well, the audience here with me today are all playing their part and we will hear from them throughout this show.
But I want to start today with two trailblazers.
Razan Al Mubarak is the president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the first Arab woman to hold that title. And Erika Cuellar is a Rolex Awards Laureate and conservation
biologist.
And a reminder for those of you watching from home to get involved, let us know what you are doing by using the #CallToEarth.
Well, let's kick this off, Razan, let me start with you.
What are, to your mind, the critical issues facing our planet right now?
And how important are what you would term nature-based solutions?
RAZAN AL MUBARAK, PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to be on this incredible show. I'm super excited to be here.
So we're all here and we're all witnessing, really, the two existential crises, the crisis of climate change but, at the same time, we are facing another critical issue, which is the biodiversity crisis.
We have encroached as humanity on every -- in all spaces, be it land or be it sea and we need to recognize what nature provides humanity. It's everything. It's the air that we breathe; it's the food that we eat. It's the climate that we actually depend on. So nature provides us with the ability to live, to survive, to thrive.
ANDERSON: Erika, you are a biologist and conservationist and your work has been centered on the Bolivian region of Gran Chaco.
Why?
ERIKA CUELLAR, ASST PROF, SULTHAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY: Well, the Gran Chaco is an incredible biome. It's the second largest biome after the Amazon. So it's very important.
When I started, everybody was just focusing on the problems in tropical rainforest and I just had this biome with this amazing potential. And nobody was taking care of it.
So the indigenous community in the Gran Chaco, they try to regain the land and 3.4 million hectares were declared protected area.
it wasn't just animals and plants, it wasn't just nature, it was people. If we want to achieve conservation, long-term conservation, we cannot avoid people. We have to include people. People are part of the system.
MUBARAK: Absolutely. And just following up on what Erika said, it's people. People are at the forefront and should be at the forefront of our thinking when it comes to conservation. Just last month, the United Nations human rights body voted that clean -- a clean environment is a human right.
And if we want to do justice to future generations, the best thing that we can give them is a stable planet.
How do we give them a stable planet?
It is about empowering the youth.
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CUELLAR: For me, doing conservation without the involvement of local people is just gardening and we don't want that. We want conservation long term conservation and people are there. And we really need to involve them.
ANDERSON: Fantastic.
Well, we've been discussing how conserving, restoring and sustainably managing the world's ecosystems are critical to preserving our planet. Lest we forget, our planet is a blue planet; over 70 percent of it is covered by vast oceans. And our marine habitats, folks, need your help. Have a look at this.
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JOHN BERGER, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: All research provides hundreds of billions of a year in services and benefits to humanity these beautiful ecosystems with vibrant colors and fishes floating around everywhere. They're the richest ecosystem that we have in the seas.
So they're incredibly important in terms of biodiversity. Probably in the next three decades, we're going to see substantial declines of coral reefs around the world by 2100; they'll largely disappear as a result of climate change.
My name is John Berger; I'm an associate professor of biology at New York University. My team and I are out several times a week on these reefs.
This is a beautiful natural laboratory to try and understand how organisms might respond to future climate change and other regions because it's so warm here. We don't genetics work, for example, showing that the coral animal itself as well as the algae that associated with it, are genetically distinct here in the Southern Gulf from those that are in the Indian Ocean.
And so they really have adapted to this unique extreme environment that we have here and offer a lot of hope for science in terms of trying to understand how organisms might respond to climate change and adapt to it.
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ANDERSON: Just a great example of the challenges that we face. We're here to talk about some of the solutions that we can provide.
I'm pleased to have with us tonight Rasha Saleh, who is encouraging her peers here in the UAE to audit their own environmental impact, and Spencer Cox, who uses mapping technology for water conservation in the U.S.
Thank you both for joining us tonight.
Rasha, let me start with you. You are a coordinator at Emirates Nature WWF through a founder of a platform known as Enta Green, UAE. And, fascinatingly, you have traveled to the Antarctica on a scientific mission. Tell us about the work that you do and what you found when you did that mission.
RASHA SALEH, FOUNDER, ENTA GREEN: Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me here, I believe and I say that each person has their own environmental journey. Each person is at a certain level, maybe their stage of awareness may be at the stage of action may be at the stage of implementation.
And this is -- in a way it was my journey before I started then joining Emirates Nature and also beyond work trying to create content through Enta Green, to raise awareness about what each person can change.
And I think I've been influenced a lot and inspired by my experiences, just going to Antarctica really changed my mind and really gave me that energy to tell people that every single person has a change and we can all get together and make change different things in our lifestyle, like steering away from single use plastics, like trying to learn and know about environmental issues, like joining organizations that are doing an effort for that is a great thing.
ANDERSON: Spencer, you've been involved all your life in conservation. Just tell me how you involve what's the project you've been working?
SPENCER COX, CLIMATE CONSERVATIONIST: I was working most recently on a grant process to basically make a case to the Environmental Protection Agency within the United States that money should be allocated to the Mill Creek Watershed in the Cincinnati area.
I see a lot of nods in this audience. We'll get to you a little later. We talked about the importance of involving indigenous communities. Here is a fact for you.
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ANDERSON: Modern farming practices are responsibility for almost 60 percent of bio diversity loss.
Up next, we see if going back to going back to how we use produce will help us live more sustainably. Stay with us.
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ANDERSON: Well, welcome back to a CNN special here at the stage at EXPO 2020 Dubai. This is our first ever Call to Earth Day on CNN a day when we encourage people around the world particularly youngsters to get involved.
With smart solutions to help save our planet. And I've got one such youngster here. Student Marria Peduto, a college student focuses on understanding on what you describe as climate smart agriculture, innovative solutions.
Tell me what you're up to.
MARRIA PEDUTO, STUDENT, INDIANA UNIVERSITY-BLOOMINGTON: Yes. So I actually work on our campus farm at Indiana University Bloomington.
And we use climate smart agricultural techniques. I'm using things like compost, low emissions, tilling, to actually an organic agriculture to actually grow food for our university that we can then consume in our dining halls.
And I've also worked on created the food security for Thought Project. And we actually work to use a food from the catering services at our university to create food boxes for students.
ANDERSON: And what inspired you to get involved?
PEDUTO: So food is something that I'm very passionate about. It is a major of mine. And so I'm very, very focused on food studies but then also recognizing that international graduate students face high levels of food insecurity. It's only exacerbated by climate change. And so trying to be a part of the solution is something that's really passionate and inspiring.
ANDERSON: For me, Marria, one of the key steps that we can take to help ensure biodiversity, I'm sure you will agree is to have a more varied diet and here's how one chef is helping his patrons to eat in harmony with nature.
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ANGEL LEON, CHEF, APONIENTE (through translator): My story begins on these shores in Cadiz. For me, first goes to sea and then comes the kitchen.
I'm Angel Leon, chef from Aponiente, a restaurant with three Michelin stars in southern Spain.
When I started to cook with unwanted parts of fish 15 years ago, this was truly avant-garde. But as a cook, it seems more respectful to use what I call trash fish than to use the fish that everyone knows.
I have an obsession with discovering new ingredients from the sea, looking for plants that can produce biomass, plants that could produce food. And suddenly this estada marina (ph) came to me.
JUAN MARTIN BERMUDEZ, DIRECTOR OF R&D, APORIENTE (through translator): Seagrass menus (ph) are the most ecologically productive echo systems on the planet, more than the rain forest. They sequester carbon, produce oxygen and house many species of marine animal.
LEON (through translator): Science saw it as an important plant for the ecosystem. What I saw in it, an undiscovered grain.
It's interesting because seagrass doesn't taste like the sea.
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LEON (through translator): That's important.
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The texture is something between quinoa and rice. The only documented use of it was by the Seri Indians in Mexico. It is said that this civilization ate marine rice.
BERMUDEZ (through translator): We went to Mexico and one of the most exciting points of the trip was when they gave us a demonstration on how they cooked this, although it's been 40 years since they actually used it as a food.
This is the future of seagrass. If we plant the seagrass in these estuaries, we're going to bring a lot of invertebrates. We're going to bring a lot of fish. The salt culture, the local culture, which is at risk of disappearance, will once again have a story to tell through a new crop.
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LEON (through translator): My dream is that, in 10 years' time, the world will cook and harvest rice in the sea, in a planet where almost three-quarters of it is water. Think of how we could irrigate the land with sea water. Think about the amount of protein the plant can provide us with.
And it only needs light, water and the movement of the sea. I am much more excited about finding new foods in the sea than any of my Michelin stars. I think we will leave something more important, which is the discovery of new ways of feeding ourselves in the future.
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ANDERSON: Well, with me tonight is Marc Aoun, whose social enterprise in Lebanon converts biowaste into compost. And Sydney Millerd is passionate about preserving her home state of Hawaii. She also mentors food insecure kids from low income households.
Thank you for being with us tonight.
Sydney, just talk to me about why you have got involved with the projects that you are involved with?
SYDNEY MILLERD, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY PF HAWAII, WEST OAHU: Yes, so to begin, in Hawaii, we currently import over 90 percent of the food that we consume. So you know, that's totally unsustainable, where if we were to have a natural disaster or something was to happen to our ports.
And that being shut down, we're not going to have that food. So we do find that balance where we're self-sufficient but at the same time still having those opportunities to import food.
So with that, back in ancient Hawaii, with the millions of or about a million of Native Hawaiians who were there back then they were able to self-sustain themselves with an aqua a system which ran from the mountains to see where they were able to harvest and gather the resources that they needed back then and live healthy lives.
And that's obviously changed to what it is today. So looking at that difference from the past to what it is now, we really have to see and look to our ancestral roots to find ways to become more sustainable and food secure today.
ANDERSON: And that will really resonate more with people living in this region, the GCC in the wider Middle East, this is a region that is incredibly food insecure. Just tell our viewers about the work that you are involved with?
MARC AOUN, ENVIROMENTAL SCIENTIST: Absolutely. So as you mentioned, we import along a large portion of the food we rely on and one-third of the food we produce actually ends up as waste in landfills becoming an environmental burden.
At the same time, we can actually recover these nutrients and valorize them into a fertilizer. So this is essentially what compostability does. We work with local communities, raise awareness, so they can properly sorted source and put the infrastructure necessary there is low tech and low cost and locally adapted so that we can treat this material and ensure that farmers are encouraged to use it and see the benefits that can offer for them for the community and the environment.
ANDERSON: How does waste management fit into the wider story of food insecurity?
AOUN: Of course, so almost 60 percent in the case of Lebanon, at least and in the region of the waste we generate is organic waste, its food waste. So it's a resource that we can make use of to fuel the future of agriculture or at least a big portion of it.
Today, agriculture or globally is medicated agriculture, very dependent on imported fertilizers, chemical fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides and much less on the health of the soil, the really the ecosystem around growing the plants.
And this is really where compost or food waste and bringing that food waste back into the cycle comes into play because it's essentially how we can ensure that we are providing a sustainable source of nutrients.
ANDERSON: Sydney, do you feel the momentum for others to get involved in sustain a more sustainable lifestyle?
MILLERD: Oh, yes, definitely. So for example, in Hawaii, that's the new movement that's coming around my degree that I went into at the University of Hawaii West O'ahu was called Sustainable Community Food Systems.
And that's an up and coming degree and more organizations around Hawaii are getting involved. Schools are getting, you know, farm to school programs, they're growing food in their own gardens that they are using for their lunches and meals at school.
So it's really, you know, different aspects in our everyday lives are really just getting involved with this more sustainable food resin.
ANDERSON: We talked about the importance of getting youngsters involved in land restoration and conservation in a more sustainable lifestyle. And here are some great examples of what people are doing.
RAZAN AL MUBARAK, PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE: Very inspirational. And you've touched on a topic, agriculture and food that touch upon the two crises, right. So biodiversity and climate change.
A lot of people assume that if you address the issue of climate change, you're going to address the issue of biodiversity. That's not the case.
But there are common culprits and agriculture is one of them.
ANDERSON: Erika, this must resonate with you.
ERIKA CUELLAR, ASST PROF, SULTHAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY: Yes, I am just fascinated to hear that. So I think we have to learn we have to learn a little bit we have to be more humble and just stop a little bit find solutions, learning from what it has been done before us.
ANDERSON: Well, I hope you're inspired by what you're hearing here. And I know folks wherever you're watching in the world, you will have answers.
You will be answering that call and let us know what you are doing #CallToEarth.
Now did you know that cities produce 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions?
So how can we build a more sustainable urban reality?
That is coming up. Stay with us.
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ANDERSON: Well, many, many thanks to Nikola, to Mamadou and to Bassam from the Clarinet in Folklore Group for providing us with some Arabic and African beats tonight. Absolutely, fantastic.
Welcome back.
You are on the stage at the EXPO 2020 here in Dubai. And we are finding out what people here are doing to ensure that we do something about our planet, which I know you'll all agree, is in crisis but there are solutions. Let's try and get some of those solutions tonight. I'm joined by some youngsters here.
What are your names?
CHINAR VAID, STUDENT, BRIGHTON COLLEGE DUBAI: Chinar.
ANDERSON: And?
CARMEN URE, STUDENT, BRIGHTON COLLEGE DUBAI: Carmen.
ANDERSON: And Carmen and Chinar, what are you doing to save the planet?
VAID: Well we are starting to bring recycling bins to our school in trying to make our school much more ecofriendly, so our school and not just our school and the whole world.
ANDERSON: That is Brighton College, folks, in the UAE to be precise.
That's amazing.
Tell me, what else?
URE: We go around the classrooms and leave notes saying to turn off the lights and turn off the boards to save electricity.
ANDERSON: That is absolutely fantastic. Well, thank you to our students from Brighton College.
If we are going to get serious about conservation, then we need to completely rethink the way that we build our future cities. Here is a thought. How about this?
We build them from trash. Have a look at this.
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ARTHUR HUANG, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, MINIWIZ: In nature we produce zero waste.
Isn't that how the city should be?
Isn't that how we should build our product?
Everything should be circular. There's no waste. Everything can be retransformed, upcycled into all kinds of beautiful architecture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huang has spent the past 16 years innovating such transformation. HUANG: This is designed to --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His team has used waste to develop over 12,000 different materials for use in construction all over Taiwan's capital, Taipei and beyond.
From the streets of Taipei to the Tibetan plateau, Huang and his team took their technology for a test drive in 2017 with the Trashpresso, a portable solar powered recycling machine designed to allow communities to recycle locally in places were plastic waste has become an increasing problem like a region in Shanghai province.
HUANG: Our mission has shifted to say how can we actually take many of these possible technology to people who actually really need it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Miniwiz has developed an AI recycling system to detect different kinds of plastic which the Trashpresso through heat and compression can transform into new products.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Miniwiz turned their engineering skills to a different kind of transformation. Huang worked with the Fu Jen Catholic University Hospital and other partners to develop the modular, adaptable convertible or MAC ward.
HUANG: During COVID time, most material cannot be shipped. So we are building medical parts, a medical ward system all out of local trash. All of the aluminum panels is already made from 90 percent of recycled aluminum and even the handle of the shelving all the, like hand rests, these are actually ready made by medical waste.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A portable version can be built from scratch in 24 hours, Huang says.
HUANG: The thing of that is what pandemic forces to become very innovative to coming up with a solution to adapt to the current situation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Adapting to a pandemic and also to environmental pressures, Huang's work shows how to create a more sustainable future.
HUANG: We don't need to create new things. We just need to use our ingenuity, innovations and our good heart and good brain to transform this existing material into the next generation of product and buildings to power our economy.
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ANDERSON: Well, let me introduce two people who are laser focused on helping to develop more sustainable cities, greener cities. Haya Aseer is with the Arab Youth Center and Bilal Shabandri is the co-founder and CEO of arcab.
I'm going to get you to explain exactly what that is all about in a moment.
First, to you, Haya; you work with the Arab Youth Council for Climate Change.
What's the general sentiment toward climate change, the climate crisis and the opportunities that some of the sort of solutions based, innovative ideas that we've been discussing today might provide for this region?
HAYA ASEER, ARAB YOUTH COUNCIL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Definitely. Well, Becky, just to give you an outline of what the picture with Arab youth is, a few years ago, we conducted a survey at the Arab Youth Center that involve thousands of Arab youth.
And we asked them what are their top priorities are. And unfortunately, only 12 percent of these youth reported that environmental matters and climate changes have no priority to them. And even less, with 11 percent only reported that infrastructure is of their priority.
And just to put things into perspective if 12 percent or 11 percent of us thought that connectivity and digitalization is important. EXPO will cease to exist.
So although the numbers were devastating but they incentivized us to create a change and they highlighted the urgency that how much we have to include our future generation in the Arab world and --
ANDERSON: Why do you think those numbers were so small or so low?
ASEER: Well, to be honest, generation and generation, generations before, the current one did not have this insight or this awareness to the -- if we're looking at the global ranking of cities in regards to the percentage of green areas and parks, you'd go through 30 to 40 cities until you find one Arab city on the list.
So it was not on our agenda 20 years ago but we're definitely creating qualitatively when the Arab --
ANDERSON: Bilal, what are you up to, tell us?
BILAL SHABANDRI, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ARCAB: So I'm co-founder of arcab. And one of the goals for creating arcab for me personally was to have 1 million fewer cars in the road and more green spaces than parking lots.
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So how I got into arcab was with a personal problem that I faced with daily commutes. On one hand, there were tons of cars on the roads, millions of cars, tons of emissions and I wanted a way to seamlessly get to work every single day.
But the public transportation of very crowded time consuming congested, especially during peak hours and private transportation was very expensive for daily use.
So initially, arcab started out as an idea to use micro transit buses to get from point A to point B, to create a solution that's 30 minutes faster than a traditional bus and 78 percent cheaper than a private transportation or a taxi.
So that's when arcab really began as a bus pooling application, to encourage people to use shared modes of transportation to get from point A to point B very seamlessly very quickly.
ANDERSON: Mubarak -- to you and to all of you, thank you for being involved tonight.
All our themes today can be found right here at EXPO 2020 Dubai, the Sustainability Pavilion, with nearly 5,000 solar panels wants to show the world how we can truly live sustainably and set new standards for ourselves.
And walking across this entire space, you will see the exhibitions that showcase what very well could be our future world. Stay with us, we are taking a very short break.
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ANDERSON: Welcome back.
The question is, how do we ensure this momentum for change?
Razan, do you feel hopeful at this point?
MUBARAK: Absolutely Becky, certainly feel hopeful and so many signs that make me feel hopeful.
We know that when we invest in conservation, we reap the results.
MUBARAK: So nature works, nature conservation works. We have a wonderful story. We have youth that are fully engaged. And yes, I'm very hopeful and very optimistic.
ANDERSON: Erika, there is a lot of work to do. But do you share that optimism?
CUELLAR: Yes, of course, of course, I have to. we need to make an impact. And I think, you know, involving people it is the impact we need to achieve now.
ANDERSON: Yes, thank you for your inputs. And thank you both.
That wraps our CNN special, Call to Earth. Change will be tough. It will take a rethink of how we currently live, how we build our cities and structure, our society opportunities to change the way we live are all around us.
As always, we want to hear from you, our audience about what you are doing to create a sustainable future. This is your moment. This is your Call to Earth. Thank you.
